Eight feature films to watch at SXSW

More than 100 movies will be playing at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, running Friday through March 19.

Major titles include "Source Code," starring Jake Gyllenhaal; "Super," with Rainn Wilson; the Oscar-winning "In a Better World" from Denmark; and "Win Win" with Paul Giamatti.

We've picked eight of our favorites, based on early screenings, to help guide you through the festival. All of these are narrative features. Documentaries will be the topic of Friday's Movies section. Film times are subject to change. Check sxsw.com/film for up-to-the-minute information.

"In a Better World"

This taut, suspenseful and moving film from director Susanne Bier won the Academy Award for best foreign- language film. And rightly so. It artfully explores the pain of adolescence and the conflicting motivations of revenge and forgiveness.

Young Christian and his father, Claus, have moved from London to Denmark after the death of Christian's mother, a loss the child struggles to process as he holes himself up in his cramped room. At his new school, Christian befriends bullied classmate Elias, who is enduring his own difficulties at home as his parents work their way through a separation.

A youthful and dangerous bout of rebellion tests the limits of the two boys' friendship and their relationship with their parents as unspoken fears and resentments eventually boil over at home.

If this Academy Award winning film was produced by an American studio, it would likely play as a straight horror film, with the troubled Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen in an incredible debut performance) depicted as the embodiment of evil, but Bier delivers a beautiful and nuanced film with characters that earn our sympathies without asking for them.

— Matthew Odam

"Super"

The pairing of Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson in a comic superhero movie might forebode twee and inanity overload for some. But things might not be as they seem, especially since "Super" is directed by James Gunn, who got his start with low-budget Troma Entertainment.

The moping Frank D'Arbo (Wilson) tells us he has had only "two perfect moments which offset a life of pain, humiliation and rejection." Those moments: marrying his wife, Sarah (Liv Tyler), and meekly alerting cops to a fleeing robber. When Sarah, who has succumbed to a life of drugs, leaves him for a club owner, Frank's first brush with perfection is shattered.

Inspired by a ridiculous Christian TV superhero, Frank transforms into The Crimson Bolt, a hapless hero who patrols the town whacking bad guys with a massive wrench.

Filled with a hopeful naïveté and aided by his new sidekick, Boltie (a comic store nerd played by Page), Frank goes on a killing spree in an attempt to save his wife from the clutches of evil.

The movie shifts wildly from silly to sadistic and back, exploring religious themes of salvation and grace while lampooning the conventions of movies about both heroes and sadsacks alike. It's not what you think it's going to be, until it is. But only for a moment.

(10 p.m. Saturday, Paramount; 9 p.m. Monday, Arbor)

— M.O.

"Win Win"

A slightly schlubby jogger sputters along a wooded trail as a couple of fleet-footed runners pass him. He stops, winded and defeated.

Such is life for Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti). Try as he might, the middle-age lawyer can't seem to stay ahead of life. A tree in the front yard is threatening to topple and collapse the roof of his family's house; the boiler in his office is on the fritz; and his roster of small-time clients isn't getting the bills paid on time. Adding insult to injury, the high school wrestling team he coaches in his spare time can't pin an autumn leaf to the ground.

When faced with the opportunity to take advantage of an aging client's dilemma, the straight-shooting Mike makes an unethical and out-of-character move that will earn him $1,500 a month. Although it seems a victimless crime, Mike realizes his plan is not foolproof when his client's grandson, Kyle (an excellent turn by Alex Shaffer), appears.